Invited Lecture "Explaining Human Decision Making: From Neuroimaging to Neuromarketing" by V. Klucharev at Dresden University of Technology, Institute of Psychology III

Abstract

Neuromarketing is a new interdisciplinary field combining methods of psychology, neuroscience and marketing in order to create a neurobiological model of economic decision making and persuasion. G.R. Miller defined persuasive communication as any message that is intended to shape, reinforce, or change the responses of others (Miller 1980). The vast diversity and popularity of advertising makes it an excellent vehicle by which persuasive communication can be studied (McClure, Li et al. 2004).
One of the most powerful techniques of persuasion is that of high expertise or authority often referred to as "expert power". The persuasive effect of experts is based on the idea that people will trust the opinions of someone who is assumed to have a lot of relevant knowledge (French and Raven 1960). We found that a single exposure to a combination of an expert communicator and an object leads to a long-lasting change in attitudes towards the object. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we report that experts modulate the activity in a set of brain regions involved in memory encoding and trustful behavior that in turn dramatically modulate human economic behavior. Our results suggest that modulation of caudate activity is involved in triggering the persuasive behavioral effect of experts.
Recently, the role of the caudate in processing social information e.g. perceived fairness of social partners was demonstrated (Delgado, Locke et al. 2003; King-Casas, Tomlin et al. 2005). It has been shown that caudate activity correlates with “intention to trust” on the next play of a trust game and with player reputation development (King-Casas, Tomlin et al. 2005). Thus, our results demonstrate that experts effectively modulate activity in neural structures (i.e., caudate nucleus) involved in trustful behavior and risk evaluation.
We suggest that the persuasive effect of experts is mediated by the modulation of caudate activity resulting in a re-evaluation of the product in terms of its perceived value, related attitudes or risk-reward tradeoffs. By and large, these results enable to make the first steps toward a neuroscientific model of persuasive communication.

Presentation at Neuroeconomics Annual Conference 2006, Park City, UT, USA

Vasily Klucharev Brain mechanisms of persuasion: fMRI study of persuasive nature of advertising
Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 1:30 -2:00
Web: http://neuroeconomics.org/